The Greene County supervisors got plenty of good news at their July 8 meeting, starting with county attorney Thomas Laehn’s weekly check-in. He reported having only 58 pending cases in district court, whereas at this time last year there were 90 pending cases. “Crime rates have been really low, knock on wood… We’ve had a 50 percent drop,” he said.
Laehn also reported he’s working with conservation Tanner Scheuermann updating rules for the county’s parks to bring them current with state code.
Ryan Berven of Assured Partners, the company that manages the county’s self-insured health benefits package, reported the county’s health plan “looks even better than your crops.”
He said covered employees have filed $285,000 net in claims over the past six months, while the expected claims had been figured at $469,000. He said $285,000 is the lowest utilization of the health benefit in the past seven years, and that has allowed the reserve fund to grow to $2.1 million.
In the past the county auditor has had to transfer funds into the self-insured reserve to keep it in the black, Berven reminded the supervisors. “It’s been a tremendous seven-year stretch,” Berven said about the current balance.
Berven said he may recommend decreasing what county employees pay for their health coverage.
“In my wildest dreams I never thought a surplus in that fund would be a problem,” board chair John Muir said. “Now we have to figure out how we want to approach it.”
The board heard updates on Greene County Development Corporation and the Greene County Career Academy.
GCDC board president Scott Weber reported he has met several times with a company interested in the building known as the Forge in the 200 block of E. State St, and that building owner Chris Deal has talked with several companies about it. He said there’s been a lot of interest in GCDC’s revolving loan fund. Local businesses can borrow up to $15,000 at a lower interest rate than available at banks.
The GCDC board is discussing undertaking county-wide vision planning, “kind of regrouping as a whole… to figure out what we need, where we want to go, projects that we’d like to see completed. We’re just in the beginning stages… of talking about how we want to do that,” Weber said.
Board members have also been attending city council meetings around the county, listening to their needs and inviting them to become more involved in GCDC.
Weber introduced Sara Huddleston, director of the Multicultural Family Resource Center. Huddleston came to Greene County from Storm Lake and has been on the job for a month. She has offices at the Jefferson municipal building and at Greene County High School.
She said she has visited and met with many people, letting them know what services she can provide. She’s “practicing” doing the computer-based student registration so she’s ready to help families who need it. She also said she hopes to teach English classes for non-English speakers at the Greene County Career Academy.
Iowa Central Community College president Jesse Ulrich, Greene County Schools superintendent Brett Abbotts, and Teresa Green, Career Academy and workforce/economic development specialist for Iowa Central servicing Greene County, also updated the supervisors.
Ulrich said Iowa Central serves 6,200 credit-earning students and is the fifth largest community college in the state. He said 35 percent of Iowa Central students come from the 9-county service region, and that 77 percent of Iowa Central graduates stay in the service area. “When you’re fighting for population in the state of Iowa, we know that community colleges and career academies have a positive impact on staying in this region,” Ulrich said.
Iowa Central operates four career academies, of which Greene County’s is the most robust in regard to the number of strands offered.
Green said the Greene County Career Academy has an advantage in being housed with the high school. That allows students to move back and forth between the two without losing instructional time or having transportation issues. She added that the Iowa Central college and career transition counselor will be in Greene County a full day each week this coming school year, an increase from a half-day last year.
Supervisor Dan Benitz took the opportunity to ask about the industrial technology program at the high school. He recounted that when he taught industrial tech at Jefferson-Scranton high school, there were three fulltime teachers in the department. The school now has struggled to have one industrial tech teacher. Abbots said he interviews nine different people for an opening and finally found someone who will teach machining and CAD. The person asked for a starting salary of $120,000, Abbotts said. Ulrich said the challenge hiring instructors is that persons with those skills can earn three times more in the private sector than in teaching.
The supervisors approved a bill of sale for acquiring a telecommunication tower at the LEC. The tower was assumed to be part of the purchase when the county purchased the building and property from Midland Power. Cost for the tower is $1. The supervisors also approved the fourth and final $150,000 payment to Midland Power for the building and property.
The supervisors terminated an outdated 28E agreement with the city of Jefferson for the animal shelter. That agreement, from 2000, was replaced with another agreement when the new shelter opened.
The supervisors approved homestead tax credits for four disabled veterans; hiring Hailey Saffell as a part-time dispatcher at a rate of $19/hour, increasing to $20 when she achieves certification; and hiring Abigail Champion as a part-time EMT at a wage of $13/hour. Champion will stay at the ambulance garage for the duration of her shift and will earn the wage regardless of activity.
